Woohoo!!! Also, ice.

After two weeks without a working computer, my computer cord finally arrived. I was supposed to get it last week, but we had a major ice storm (part of the Midwest winter weirdness) and that affected the parcel service. Some of the roads were (and still are) sheer ice. For a while, they were so slippery that even the big UPS trucks probably couldn't get much traction. We've had so much bad weather that schools were closed, church services were cancelled, and we were advised by the news channels, in all seriousness, on how to properly shovel our driveways.

I shrugged off most of the bad weather and got around fine most days. On Monday I left the house to go to work and found about an inch or two of ice on my windshield. I'd forgotten to leave enough time for scraping. My Southern friends think I have mad scraping skills (an byproduct of growing up in the Land of Ice and Snow, a.k.a. Minnesota), but that windshield took a while. I realized I was going to be late for work.

So I was mildly irritated and out of breath by the time I finally finished scraping. I went to chuck my scraper in the car, whereupon I realized that one of my tires was, in effect, flat. (It has a slow leak...doesn't do well in cold weather...or any weather, for that matter.)

Even more irritated, I scooted out of my driveway, completely forgetting about the road conditions. I came out a little too fast, overshot the road, and ended up in the neighbors' driveway without enough traction to get back on the road. (I managed to knock their little lamppost askew in the process, but they're pretty easy-going and are not pressing charges. :-P) After giving myself a talking-to, I had to knock on the neighbors' door and borrow some of their road salt. The salt, mixed with what looked like windshield washer fluid, was frozen solid. I had to break it up with a shovel. By that time I wasn't irritated any more, just resigned.

After I got some salt under the tires, I had enough traction to get back up to the road...and then to crawl veeeeery slowly up to the gas station. I ended up being an hour late for work. Good times, good times. I am just glad we didn't lose power like everyone in Springfield, MO did.

They say we're going to have another storm this weekend. I say let it come. My computer will keep me warm.